In order not to derail the MLA thread I have started a new thread to deal with some accusations made by some other posters.
bcb originally posted
Quote:
I'd like some proof to support your contentions regarding several of your posts:
1.) More and more graduates can barely read
2.) Parts of the Alberta curriculum are useless crap
3.) The education system is broken
If you can't provide quantitative evidence, you'll have to admit you're just towing the party line by repeating rhetoric.
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Like I posted before I have read a few articles in the past and listen to a segment on a radio show regarding this issue. Here is some evidence to support what I had suggested.
- more than one million Canadians aged 25 to 44 have
not completed high school and approximately 1.6 million
16- to 25-year-olds have less than Level 3 literacy, the standard
considered the minimum to function effectively in a
knowledge-based society such as Canada.
- In 2006–2007, the high-school dropout rate for 20- to
24-year-olds living in small towns and rural areas was almost
twice the rate for the same age group living in large cities
(14.9% versus 8.3%).
- Although Canadians are more educated than ever before,
numerous surveys of business leaders indicate that employers
are dissatisfied with their employees’ so-called soft
skills (including teamwork, communication skills and selfmotivation)
and with some of the skills necessary for their
jobs (including the management of information, use of
numbers and problem solving). As a solution, many businesses
are turning to post-secondary institutions for specific
courses that meet these particular needs. This presents an
opportunity for growth in the PSE sector.
-20% of the university-educated population in Canada
had prose literacy skills below Level 3, the internationally
accepted level required to cope in a modern society.
- Poor literacy skills at age 15 can become a chronic problem.
In 2003, almost 1.6 million individuals (37.8%) aged 16 to 25
years were functioning at literacy levels 1 and 2. Although
low literacy is not the same as illiteracy—in reality, very few
Canadian adults are truly illiterate (unable to read or write)—
evidence suggests that literacy skills decline with age.
10 The number of young adults with low levels of literacy is, therefore,
of particular concern given the social and economic implications
for individuals and the country as a whole.
Just a few examples from a 160 page document. There were a lot of good things in the study as well regarding access to PSE but the listed points support that there is a growing problem.
A physics teacher in Ontario -
A dramatic indication that there could be a serious problem was the performance of my introductory physics class on their November test last year. It was identical to one given in 1996, but the class average over this 10-year period had plummeted from 66 to 50 percent.
When I enquired elsewhere at Trent University, I found the same pattern in the mathematics department, where the first test in linear algebra was down some 15 percent from its historic mean, and the calculus average had dropped nine percent from the year before.
Brock University has seen a significant increase in the failure rate for students in first-year physics with similar results in mathematics.
What could have caused this dramatic shift in the approach of our students? I do not believe the problem is with the teachers, who are generally well trained and dedicated. The main possible explanations seem to be the following:
1. In 1997, the Ontario government introduced a new, content-intensive curriculum for grades K to 8 in mathematics and language, followed in 1998 by the science and technology curriculum.
And he continues on with his reasons with the decline.
Here are some comments from educators in the post secondary system.
I'm a U of A researcher and Faculty member.
In the sciences, the increasing use of multiple choice questions is creating a generation who can rote-learn, but who can not reason, argue and ultimately deduce what the correct response should be.
The quality of intake that arrives on our doorstep from high schools, with regard to capabilities in science, mathematics and mental arithmetic, is plummeting. More emphasis on MCQs will NOT improve things. I certainly do not blame the teachers in Alberta's school system. It would seem that they are having their hands tied by policy makers and politicians.
In another survey conducted by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations this year, 55 per cent of university professors and librarians said first-year students were less prepared than students just three years earlier.
Respondents reported a decline in students' writing and numeric skills, an over-reliance on Internet resources, lower maturity levels, and an expectation of success without the requisite effort.
After 41 years of teaching math at UBC, professor George Bluman is a little apprehensive about what’s going to happen this September. The department has already had to introduce a course called Math 110. It’s the equivalent of Grade 12 math, taught at university for university credit, for students who show up with numeracy skills too weak for them to succeed in first-year calculus courses. The prerequisite: Grade 12 math.
UBC isn’t the only postsecondary institution that’s introduced courses aimed at getting students entering from B.C. high schools up to snuff. But at UBC, which has some of the tightest admission requirements in the country, it’s striking that any student would arrive unable to do the work.